The side drum is a percussion instrument characterized by a shallow cylindrical shape and powerful, staccato sound. Metal wires called snares are stretched against the bottom head to form a snare drum. Snare drums are used in a wide variety of musical venues such as orchestras, concert bands, marching bands, parades, drum lines, drum corps, and more. The snare drum is one of the central pieces in a trap set, a collection of percussion instruments designed to be played by a seated drummer, which is used in many popular genres of music. Snare drums are usually played with drum sticks, but there are other options which create a completely different sound, such as the brush.
There are many types of snare drums such as the kit snare, marching snare, tarol snare, and piccolo snare. Each type presents a different style of percussion and size. The snare drum that one might see in a concert is usually used in a back beat style to create rhythm while in marching bands, the snare drum can do the same but is used mostly for a front beat.
The snare drum comprises a hollow cylinder with two heads with one head stretched over each open end of the cylinder. The heads are both usually made of a plastic material such as MYLAR. Usually, the bottom head has a snare mechanism including metal wires called snares which are stretched against the bottom head. However, the snare mechanism can also be placed on the top, as in the tarol snare. The top head is usually called the batter head because that is the head which is struck by the drummer. The bottom head is generally called the snare head because that is where the snares are usually located. The tension of the drumhead is held constant by tension rods which may be tightened, thus providing an opportunity to alter the sound of the hit. The strainer is a lever that ‘strains’ or tightens the snare against the head. When the strainer is relaxed, the sound of the snare is more like that of a tom because the snares are not active. The rim is a metal ring which holds the batter head tightly, and which can be used for a variety of things such as being used to sound a piercing rim-shot with the drumstick.
Drum strainers are comprised of a plurality of spaced apart crimped wires spaced apart a selected distance from, and stretched across, the surface of the drum. When the drum vibrates it contacts the strainer and has a “crack” sound. When a strain of a drum strainer breaks the entire unit must be replaced.
The cylindrical shell of snare drums may be made from various woods, metal, or acrylic materials. A typical diameter for snare drums is around 14 in (36 cm). Marching snare drums are deeper in size than snare drums normally used for orchestral or drum kit purposes, often measuring 12 in long (that is, the length of the cylindrical shell). Orchestral and drum kit snare drum shells are about 6 in (15 cm) deep. Piccolo snare drums are even shallower with a length of about 3 in (7.6 cm).
Most snare drum shells are constructed in plies (layers) that are heat and compression molded into a cylinder. Steam-bent shells usually consist of one ply of wood that is gradually rounded into a cylinder and glued at one seam. Reinforcement hoops are often used on the inside surface of the drum to keep it perfectly round. Segment shells are made of multiple stacks of segmented wood rings and are glued together and rounded out using a lathe. Similarly, stave shells are constructed of vertically glued pieces of wood forming a cylinder (much like a barrel) that is also rounded out using a lathe. Solid shells are constructed of one solid piece of hollowed wood.
The heads include the top head referred to as the batter head and the snare (bottom or resonant) head. The snare head is usually much thinner than the batter head and is not beaten while playing. While older snare drums had heads made from calfskin, most modern drums use plastic (Mylar) skins which are around 10 mils in thickness. (One mil is one thousandth of an inch.) However, multiple plies (usually two) of around 7 mils are used for the batter head. Snare heads are usually only a few mils thick to better enable them to respond to the movement of the batter head as it is played. Pipe band requirements have led to the development of a Kevlar-based head, enabling very high tuning, thus producing a very high-pitched cracking snare sound.
As discussed in U.S. Patent Publication 2004/0031375 by Hayden, III which published on in February of 2004 and is incorporated by reference herein, conventional snare drums, such as those manufactured by Premier, Pearl, Andante, Yamaha, Ludwig and others, feature one or more snares, each of which is positioned adjacent to a bottom (snare) head as found in most drums, and/or a top (batter) head as found in drums used by marching bands. Conventional snares are formed of a plurality of wire helix or coil segments, the ends of which are commonly welded directly to a pair of strainers or end pieces. The end pieces may be mounted on a snare support mechanism, which is in turn mounted to the drum shell. Typically, the end pieces are adapted to draw the wire segments under tension in a manner that allows their tension to be adjusted by movement of the end pieces to allow adjustment of the distance between the wire segments and the drum head. Such tension and height adjustment mechanisms are conventionally employed to tune the snare to optimum performance with the head.
Tuning of a snare drum involves optimizing acoustical performance of the snare, head and shell. A compression ring which retains the drum head on the shell typically contains a number of tensioning bolts which may be turned with a wrench or key to increase or decrease tension on the drum head. When the drum head is tensioned the snare requires adjustment in order to tune the drum to produce the desired sound. The drummer adjusts the height of a conventional snare relative to the head and then adjusts the tension until the wire segments are disposed at proper height and tension to vibrate for proper acoustical effect without unwanted “buzzing.”
A wire that is stretched between two posts and is plucked will vibrate and create a sound or musical note. The vibration of the wire will create a fundamental frequency, which has its nodes at the end points. The equation or formula to find the frequency of the sound as a function of the wire tension, length, diameter and density of the material, is based on the equation for sound created from a string. Changing the various parameters result in changing the frequency of the vibration and thus the sound.
The equation for the fundamental frequency of a taut wire as a function of tension, length, diameter and density of the wire material is:f=(1/Ld)*√(T/πδ)wheref is the frequency in hertz (Hz) or cycles per secondL is the length of the wire in centimeters (cm)d is the diameter of the wire in cm T is the tension on the wire in gm-cm/s2 π is the Greek letter pi=3.14δ is the density of the wire in gm/cm3 (Greek letter small delta)√(T/πδ) is the square root of T divided by πδ
Tensioning a conventional wire helix snare can result in problems. When the drummer increases the tension on the segments, they elongate and thereby decrease in diameter. Additionally, when such snares are over tensioned, the wire coils may exceed their elastic limit and experience undesirable permanent deformation that causes them to sag or loosen relative to the drum head and the other snares welded to the end pieces resulting in undesirable acoustics or harmonics and in most instances, necessitating the replacement of the snare assembly. Over tensioning can also subject the wire segments to undue abuse and additional tension imposed by drum sticks contacting the head during normal playing of the drum. This is especially true for drums where a snare is positioned against the top head on the side opposite the surface on which the drum sticks hit.
Snares for snare drums which are adjustable reduce tension from the dimension and shape of snare segments comprising stands or wire under tension which contact the drum head. Snares include one or more tensioning members such as wire and a plurality of head contact members such as coils or beads. The tensioning members may be connected to conventional snare strainer plates or end pieces. Some or all of the tensioning members support or carry one or more head contact members. The tensioning members may be wire, polymeric material or other desired material. The head contact members may be wire coils or helixes, formed of beads or other periodic or non-periodic shapes or structures or structured and configured as otherwise desired to be carried on tension members and cooperate effectively with the drum head for proper acoustical effect. The snares are adapted to be used with batter and bottom heads.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,505 by Hoey et al. and incorporated herein by reference describes a snare for a drum composed of molded plastic cords having integrally molded enlargement of nodules evenly spaced along the tension strand attached to metal of plastic end pieces mounted onto the drum.